A Fate Unwound
by Soulcatcher85
Summary: I had an reasonably normal life, excluding being orphaned twice, and being a magus. I went to school, took care of my guardian, and maintained my house. But, all that went out the door when Tiaga decided to drag me to Ireland for a spontaneous vacation. A week into the vacation I ended up meeting with one of the most dangerous creatures I know of, an apostle ancestor. Just my luck.
1. Chapter 1

"Shirou!" The fearsome tiger roared for me from living room. All I could really do was mentally sigh at her antics, while I finished putting away the materials I was using to clean my dojo. Truly only she could barge into someone else's home and start demanding for food. Though it's a first for her to come in a grand total of thirty minutes before I normally even start preparing anything to eat.

"Taiga, you know it's too early for me to be cooking for dinner." I call back to her as I walk over my the dojo to the living room. Which is where I found her lounging around looking helplessly bored. The twenty-one year old girl was wearing her casual yellow striped shirt and blue pants that made it a little past her knees. When Taiga noticed me walking towards her, she started to glare and pout all at the same time. Once again I find myself signing at her antics, knowing that I would end up giving in long before she would.

"Fine, fine. I'll go get dinner started." I say with a huff. Her expression almost instantaneously changed to a bright smile and a happy hum for her latest victory. Turning my back to her to march into the kitchen to start preparing the meal.

"I'm thinking that we should go on a trip this summer." Taiga called out to me as I put on my apron. I turn back to see that she ended up following me into the kitchen with her hands behind here head. Curious should would only mention this on such short notice as the break itself started. Though despite this I decide to humor her.

"Is that so? Where would you plan for us to go. School starts back up in a few weeks, so we can't do anything to extravagant." I asked, turning back around to get back to cooking.

"Well, you see I really wanted to go exploring Ireland." Taiga explained. I stopped cooking and turned to her as if she grew an extra head. England, she wanted to travel to England with no real reason. No, this can't just be a spontaneous decision this time. It's way to out there, even for her. But, I knew with her it wouldn't matter if I tried to integrate her. She would just rub it off with any and every excuse she knew, yet if I play my cards right I might be able to get out of it so I can have more time to prepare for school.

"I see, and why would you want to go there." I asked playing it slow to get a feel of what she want to use it against her to get out of the trip.

"Come on Shirou, it's Ireland. One of the most popular places to visit in Europe. They're plenty of things to do there. Also it gives me a chance to practice my english before the school term started up again." Taiga rambled off. Strange though considering when she normally does something like this she would say 'damn the reasons, I want to go' swinging that cursed Tora-Shinai around daring any that stood in her way.

"Alright that's a nice reason to convince your family. Now what's the real reason you want to go so bad." I call back, trying not to burn any of the food

"What do you mean? That is the real reason!" She whined knowing that I've caught her.

"I don't believe you for a moment" I continue to pressure into telling the truth.

"Why do you have to be so mean Shirou? I offer this amazing trip to a amazing place and all I get for thanks to an interrogation of something as unimportant as reasons!" as Taiga has changed tactics from reasoning to deflection.

"Amazing for you maybe, but last I checked I can't speak english, so I wouldn't be able to do anything besides sight-see, and even then I would be limited to what I could see, as I wouldn't be able to read or listen to anything that would explain what I'm seeing." I finally make my assault.

"Don't be like that Shirou, you won't need to speak english to be able to have fun." She whines, not even trying to add new reasons.

"I already bought the tickets and everything so it would be just a waste if you didn't go." She adds. For the third sign in the past twenty minutes, now it's starting to make sense. She never intended for me to have a choice. But instead of just telling me to go, she is guilt tripping me, paying for my ticket.

"Fine", I merely reply seeing no reason to argue a lost battle. She already payed for my ticket and I would feel horrible if i made her waste it. I should have told her no, should have made her suffer the consequences of not asking first but no, I couldn't. I'd never be such a harsh person.

"Wonderful! We leave tomorrow morning!" She exclaimed, hugging me from behind. When she let go, she march back to the living room to await her feast. All I could really do in this situation is, once again, sigh. Wow four sighs in thirty minutes, truly a new record for her.

After all that's said and done we ended up having a moderately boring dinner in which she started explaining how long we would be staying and what we would be doing. Which would be two weeks, and exploring the landmark and large tourist attractions. As soon as we finished dinner, taiga march me to my room and started to pack me a suitcase full of stuff I would need.

Soon the day was over and Taiga's family drove us to an airport to take us to our destination. It was a boring experience, the fourteen hour flight with nothing to do. Taiga ended up sleeping most of the flight off, where I couldn't even manage to sleep an hour. Upon landing in Dublin, Ireland, we went to the the hotel that the Taiga's father managed to rent out to us for the duration of our stay. Unloading and unpacking our belongings into the rooms that we were staying at.

During our stay we visited and explored many locations, such as the ruins and the cities. Most of it was fairly boring to me as i thought it would be, it wasn't that it was horrible, it's just that doing this wasn't calling out to me. Just stuff that Taiga dragged me out to do.

By the fourth day in we ended up visiting a museum owned by the church that was showing off some of its artifacts. Though I had to admit, some of the swords that were on display got my attention, I don't know why but I liked looking at them, as if they were calling to me. I was tempted to structurally grasp the swords if it wasn't for the time it took me to perform the spell and the amount of people that were around. So I ended up tearing my attention from the swords to move one. As I continued, I started to smell something odd. It smelt of something akin to eggs, or raw fish. It was something that my mind was telling me to stay away from but that only adding onto my confusion. I looked around the room to see if anyone else could smell it, but judging from how no one else was looking around for the source, or covering their noses i could only assume it was just me that could smell it.

I broke away from Taiga as she entered a new area of the museum so that I could find out what was causing that smell and see if I could get rid of it. While sniffing around, I noticed that it was coming from the second floor, a place that I was pretty sure that I was not supposed to go up to. I stopped for a moment to consider if I should break the rules and continue looking for the smell. On one hand, the second floor is blocked off for a reason and they should know that something is going on up there. On the other though, I seemed to be the only person that could smell it and that it could potentially be something dangerous that could hurt someone. After thinking about it for that moment, I quietly went up the stairs when no one was looking. If there was any chance that someone could get hurt, I was going to try to help them.

After getting to the top of the stairs, the smell became so much stronger that it is making me nauseous and practically screaming at me to stay away. Yet I persisted, getting closer and closer to the source of the smell. I continued along I finally found the source of the smell. It was a door, or more accurately it was the bottom of the doorway where I could slightly make out a line of something that I couldn't think of. Slowly I considered the idea that this is made to keep people from the door itself and by extension whatever else was inside. So very slowly, I started to open the door.

Peeking in, I couldn't see anyone. Lights were off and from the first glance, it seems to be another exhibit. I opened the door fully and went inside shutting the door behind me. Once the door was closed, turned on the lights to fully inspect what was inside. What I found was, as I thought, more items belonging to the museum. Anything ranging from a brilliant red cloth to gold and silver jewelry. Looking around I wondered why this room has that weird smell blocking the door from others.

Then I nearly fell straight onto the floor when I saw the shattered remains of a sword. Normally that wouldn't cause such a reaction from me, but this sword for some reason caught my attention. I could feel, even from these pathetic remains, an unbelievable power residing within the sword. I started to go up to the case that was holding the sword within. The sword was placed on top of a red pillow that was surrounded by a golden rope. The sword itself was meanly a dark gray nearing black with a carving on the blade and hilt, currently it was split into two pieces. The first piece was the hilt with about a third of the blade, and the rest of the blade being the second piece.

I quickly start looking around the room to make sure no one has entered. Then I got closer to the blade and put my hand on it. Slowly I felt my eyes shutting as I mentally chanted 'trace on' to start creating a new magic circuit. After the burning sensation of the newly formed circuit started to fade a bit, I cast my structural grasp onto the sword. I jumped back almost as soon as I started, and in that moment I finally understood why that smell was there. This sword alone was enough incentive to keep people away.

"Unbelievable! Hrunting, hound of the red plains." I couldn't help but mutter out. For such a sword to be here is unheard of. How did they even find this, even in the school of Japan we had to read the story of Beowulf, and all his accomplishments. These were assumed merely legends not fact, yet here is a sword that was Hrunting. I slowly walked back up to the blade to inspect it again.

"Now, how in the world did you find what out." A young voice spoke out in a foreign language. Startled I jumped away from the blade again and looked over to where I heard the voice. There stood a boy no older than fifteen with his arms crossed in front of the open door. He has straight black hair coming down to his shoulders and was wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a golden stripe going vertically down the middle of the shirt, with just black pants. What was wierd was that he has a strange tattoo on one of the hands that I could see. 'How did I not notice the door opening?' I questioned myself to only steal another glance at the sword. 'Oh yeah.'

"I believe I asked you a question magus." The boy, now speaking in fluent japanese, continued to press and started to walk towards me. The second he stepped forward I could smell it. The death surrounding him. It was also weird, as he has five unique scents to him that all screamed that I was about to die a horrible death. One of the scents was of ozone and fresh air, another one was of steel and plastic, the next smelled like a rat, the fourth one smelled like soil, and the last scent was one of a corpse. I started to back away from him in panic.

"I don't know what you mean!" I nearly squealed out in panic. He stopped and looked at me for a moment.

"How did you find out that Hrunting was here." He reiterated so that I could understand.

"I didn't" I was panicking, whatever this was it could kill me in a thought and I had nowhere to go to escape. My only option was to answer its questions and hope it let me leave alive.

"Then how did you know this sword is Hrunting?" He now a smug grin like he caught me in some sort of trap.

"I just structurally grasped the sword and found its name" I spoke up, still trying to back away from it, only to back into the case that held the red cloth that I saw earlier.

"Impossible, you could grasp the materials maybe, but not the name of the sword itself." He was frowning now, clearly not liking the answer that I gave him.

"I'm telling you that how I got the swords name" I pleaded, hoping against all odd he would believe me. He stopped coming closer just in front of Hrunting's case, looking at me as if contemplating something. Slowly he pulled out a small sword from the inside of his sleeve and tossed it right in front of me.

"Do you know what that blade is?" He asked me with a glare.

"No" I knew that if I didn't tell the truth it could be the death of me.

"Than grasp it like you did with Hrunting, and prove that you did not come here look for the sword." As soon as he told me what to do, I quickly grab the sword and held it up to me. Luckily I still had the circuit I used to grasp Hrunting so I didn't have to waste time doing that. When I grasped at this sword it didn't make me want to jump away. It was still different from a normal sword but it didn't even compare the the remains of the red plain.

"This sword is a black key, used by the church as a charm against demons and vampires. This one in particular has killed over seventeen vampires after its creation." I announced with resolve, hoping it would be enough to convince the creature of my abilities, and that I didn't come specifically for Hrunting.

"Interesting, very interesting." I nearly forgot he was here while looking at the blade in my hand. He held his hand out gesturing for me to return the blade to him. For a moment I considered trying to stab him with it, but easily decided against it. This thing, whatever he was could kill me before I pulled to blade back to strike. So I merely handed the blade back to him hilt first. "Now open the case behind you and grasp the red cloth inside."

Seeing no way out of this I removed the glass covering the cloth. Upon grasping it I noticed that it was harder than the swords. Not impossible but learning its name and what it did didn't just pop up like with the others. Slowly but surely, I found the name of the cloth, the 'Shroud of Magdalene' but that's the best I could do. "All I could get was its name, the Shroud of Magdalene"

"Now tell me how did you learn to grasp like that." He questioned, looking at the returned blade like it would share all its secrets.

"My father explained what it was, through trial and error I got to where I am now." I explained, as my father didn't really teach me anything, only explain the bare minimum.

"And who is your father" He casually asked still staring at the blade.

"Kiritsugu Emiya" He snapped his head up to meet my eyes.

"He lives?" His frown returning with a vengeance.

"No my father has been dead for several years now" I say correcting him.

"Then you bare the Emiya crest?" his expression returning to a neutral state, if not a little curious.

"No, I'm adopted and wouldn't be able to inherit it anyway."

"Interesting, very interesting. So your father is dead, you bare no crest, but yet you have very advance if not completely unique form of grasping." He say summing up the observations of the situation that I am presenting to him. "Now do you know who I am, or better yet what I am?" He finishes.

"I do not know who you are, all I know is that you are not human and you have five unique scents to you." I told him, starting to clutch the shroud, previously forgotten in my hand, hoping that it could somehow help me.

"Tell me does the term dead apostle mean anything to you?" My face paling at his question was all the answer that he needed to move one. "Then do you know what the twenty-seven apostle ancestors are?" I am confident that I was about to pass out, if what he is implying is true than I had no chance of escape was ever possible from when he even noticed my existence. The twenty-seven ancestors were the strongest of the apostles, beings that could each destroy the world if left alone.

"Good, good. Then you understand the situation that you have gotten yourself into. Now what to do with the young magus who has wandered into one my personal collection.?" Said in a voice that already knew exactly what he was going to do but merely stating it as if it was a formality.

"I'm going to let you go." He announced happily, clapping his hands together. I could only look at him dumbstruck. I truly thought he would kill me.

"I would normally kill you for what you have done" Well nice to know I called that much. "But in light of your very unique and more importantly useful grasping you can use. I have decided to keep you alive." Wonderful, it's nice to know that the only magecraft I'm even remotely good at is the one that kept one of the most dangerous beings alive from killing me.

"Now what's going to happen is that you're going to leave here, and you can go wherever you want. But every now and then I'm going to show up with some items. When I do you will grasp these items till I am satisfied." All I could do was nod dumbly as any other course of action was sure to get me killed.

"Good, good. Now then I'll show you out now." He turned his body and held out his arm gesturing to the door. Numbly I started to the as I pasted him he called out. "I never got your name." I turned around trying my best to show my most polite bow.

"Shirou Emiya"

"Hmm. Pleasure to meet you mister Emiya. My name is Merem Solomon. I look forward to doing business with you." While his voice was polite and almost sincere, his face sported a smirk that showed how damned I was right now. I simply turned around and walk out and straight to Taiga.

When I found her she was panicking from how long I was missing. When she found me she immediately took us back to the hotel crying about how horrible she felt for losing me, and that they would go back to Japan now. Still terrified by the encounter I could only nod and do as she said. It wasn't until we were in the plane going back to Japan did I notice that I was still was holding onto the shroud like as if it were a floatie in the sea of chaos that is now my life.

 **Author's notes:  
**

Well that's the first chapter of my first story. I've had this idea for a while where Shirou meets Merem and his collection of items. With Merem taking interest in Shirou's ability to look into an item and tell him more about than what he could do normally. While at the same time it introduces Shirou to the moonlight world in a deeper sense than his father did, as well as adding to his reality marble without the need to meet servants. Throughout this story it will delve into other parts of the nasuverse in hopefully ways that make sense. How, I don't fully know yet, have to wait to find out.


	2. Chapter 2

Nearly a month has past sense that horrible experience took place. The only thing that reminds me that it wasn't just a terrible nightmare was the holy shroud that I was keeping inside of my closet. I don't know if Merem meant for me to take it or not, but I didn't want to know what he would do if I let it get damaged in any way. So, I've been checking on it every day before and after I wake up and any time I left the house and came back. At this point I've been debating with myself whether or not to just carry it on my person. But that is tempting fate for something to happen to it, or worse, someone or something recognizes it and asks why I have it.

On top of the stress of keeping the shroud safe and waiting for Merem to show up, my first year of highschool is going to start up tomorrow and I was nowhere near as prepared as I should be. I mentally sigh as I go over the list of materials that I'll be needing to acquire later today. This normally would have been done earlier in the break but Taiga has been historical about what I did and when. All because of how she lost me in Ireland. Making it near impossible to leave the house when I need to. I'm only getting the opportunity to do it know because she is at the school along with the rest of the teachers preparing for the first week of classes.

On habit I went to my room to check on the shroud, then went out of the house to the shopping district of town. It took around an hour to get to the district and shop around for the necessary items for class, while trying to use as little money as possible. For the past several years after my father died, the Fujimura's have been paying for my expenses. While I said that I would be willing to get a job to pay for my finances, they wouldn't allow it. They claimed that I was too young to get a job and that I should enjoy my childhood after everything that has happened to me. I personally disagree with them and try my best to not use too much of their money. Though now that I'm sixteen I'm allowed to get a part time job, so I've been looking around while I shopped too see if I found any help wanted signs.

With no success finding a job after two hours, I decides to go home. Making a quick turn to leave the district, I walk straight into someone. I end up stumbling back a pace or two watching in horror as a girl fell on her butt.

"I am terribly sorry about that!" I hastily said, walking towards her to help her up. As I help her up I notice that she looks around my age, sporting black hair tied up in twintails using a black ribbon. She was wearing a red sweater with a large white cross in the middle of it, along with a short black skirt, and very long black socks with brown flats.

Currently she looked pissed that I knocked her down. Once she finally got up I put some distance between us she practically froze me in place with a glare.

"That was quite rude of you." She stated in a casual voice. Which did not match her intense glare.

"I'm very sorry, is there anything that I can do to make it up to you?" I asked, I felt that was the least I could do. Though I feel like I just made a huge mistake, because right after I asked that she dropped her glare entirely and for a split second had a small smirk. Which was instantly replaced with a soft smile.

"Hmm, if you don't mind could you help carry my stuff while I shop for school supplies?" She asked with the most innocent smile I've ever seen. Yet, despite that I felt like was being led into a trap.

"Sure, I'd be happy to help you with that. I don't think I have introduced myself yet, my name is Shirou Emiya." I finished with a bow.

"Oh of course, My name is Rin Tohsaka. Nice to meet you Emiya-kun." The girl now known as Rin responded. "Now, I'm off this way for some supplies and maybe a coat or two for the coming winter."

Rin started to walk away from me, making me have to jog a bit to catch up. She didn't talk to me very much, only to tell me what to do, or to hand me something to carry. Though this was useful to me as I was trying to figure something out, there was a smell coming off of her that was making me uneasy. At first all I could smell from Rin was her perfume, but as the day went on I started to notice something else coming off of her. It smelt of power, I didn't know how else to describe it. It wasn't even coming from her though. It was, from what I could tell, coming from something on her. So without know what it was or if it was dangerous, I simply did as she asked without compliant.

Slowly but surely she managed to find all of the items that she wanted, which somehow all ended up with me to carry. It was approaching dusk as we finally approached her home.

"Thank you very much for the help Emiya-kun." She called back to me politely to me. She walked up to her steps to unlock her door. As I was about to respond to her something stopped me. There was a new smell coming from her house. It was similar but at the same time different from the door that led to Merem's room. Still having no clue what was causing the smell besides that it was some sort of barrier to keep people away. Yet this one felt almost colder, where the one with Merem was more threatening. Rin turned to me when she noticed that I stopped before I crossed the boundary of whatever was creating the smell.

"Is there something the matter?" She asked, noticing my reluctance to enter her home. Snapped out of my trance, I forced myself into her house.

"Sorry, I just, um, I just took a moment to look at your house. It is very different from my own." Quickly making an excuse that was more realistic than saying ' your house smells uninviting', feeling as that would be a little insulting.

"Yes, I'm sure it does. It's a more western styled house." Rin didn't seem to like my answer to much. Taking off her shoes near the door. Once I followed her in the smell got accompanied by a feeling of unease, making it very hard for me to want to stay for long. Along with that feeling, another dangerous smell coming from a different room with its door shut. This smell felt similar to what was coming from Rin, yet it a much larger concentration. I didn't move from my spot as I waited for her to tell me where to set down her supplies.

"Hmm, I suppose you can leave those by the door then, would you like some tea? You did help me quite a lot today." She instructed me.

"No, I've been away from my house for to long, my guardian is liable to stave if I'm away for much longer. I appreciate the offer though." I rejected her offer. Though the real reason for that was I hated the feeling of this house and all of the smell coming from various things. All of that combine, I feel it's in my best interest to leave while I can.

"I suppose that I have kept you out quite a long time, I'm sorry Emiya-kun" Rin bowed to me. Odd didn't think she would feel that bad about it.

"It's alright, I wanted to help after all. Have a goodnight Tohsaka-san" I bowed slightly and left, shutting the door behind me. I let out a sigh of relief. Something is wrong with that house and for some reason I have no doubt that Tohsaka if fully aware of it, making me think that she is a magus. Hopefully she doesn't know I'm also magus, or spellcaster as I rather be called. If my father taught me anything besides the basic spells, it's that all maguses are dangerous.

I slowly start my walk to my house, with it turning dark outside I look to the night sky idley. With the distance between my and Tohsaka's houses it will be about midnight as I return. I let out a huff just thinking about what Taiga is going to do to me when she saw me. Accepting my death with dignity I opened the door fully prepared to get slaughtered by the dreaded Tora-Shinai. Instead something far worse was happened. I made it into my home with no real problems, though that should have tipped me off to begin with. As I took off my jacket and walked to the living room, I heard people talking. Not thinking to much of it I went into the room unprepared. Taiga and Merem were sitting at the dining table munching on snacks and drinking tea.

"Shirou! How dare you leave the house when you were expecting a guest!" The tiger roared at me, yet remaining in her seat with her snacks. Merem on the other hand simply waved a hand and took a sip of his tea trying to hide a small smirk that was tugging at the corner of his mouth showing his great amusement in the situation.

"I-I-I, I'm sorry! It-t must've slipped my mind." I managed to spit out, still shocked and terrified of what I was seeing.

"Miss Fujimura, I think it's about time for you to go home. Thank you for keeping me company until Shirou's return." Merem said in a polite but commanding tone. Taiga turned to him to reply but her words died on her tongue upon making eye contact. Slowly she got up wordlessly and walk out of the house. I could only stare in shock of what just happened. Then just turned to stare at Merem but unable to form words.

"Nice to see you again Shirou. As I said, I have return to make use of your skill." He calmly said pulling a large black briefcase of sorts out. I, slowly but cautiously, approached him and sat on the other side of the table. He turned the case to me and undid the hatches to open the case. Inside the case were three items; a small dagger, a very old looking piece of wood, and finally a shard of metal.

"Now would you be so kind to grasp these for me. While I know what one of these are," he gestures to the dagger. "The other two I can not tell as they have degraded to a point of unrecognizably. The only reason I even keep these small portions is because of the prana still being release from them, even in such a state." He finished, gesturing to the other two objects.

I glance back down to the items in the case. Slowly I pick up the dagger first as it's the most complete and likely to be the easiest of the three to grasp as it was the most well kept. The blade currently dull and cracked, but you could easily tell it was made from quality silver. The hilt that it was barely still attached to had a thin gold guard with carvings that have been smoothed out to the point you couldn't tell what they use to be. The hilt was the same silver that made the blade, but was wrapped with a worn leather that was falling apart.

Closing my eyes to focus I mutter my aira, 'trace, on', and start the process to create a new magic circuit. Once finished, I start to grasp the dagger. This time being prepared as he told me these were items of power, I kept myself from dropping the dagger after finding out its name.

Carnwennan, a dagger once used by king Arthur himself. A blade which has the ability to shroud its user in darkness. Pushing myself harder than before as my life might just depend on it, I look farther into the blade. Its last true user was a nameless thief that stole it from the vaults it was kept in after Arthur's death. Then church member found the thief five years later and killed him to retrieve the dagger, It has been in the churches vaults ever sense. One of the most notable uses of the blade were when Arthur killed a witch with it. I tried to push to find out the name of the witch killed but I was losing focus and my circuit was starting to burn. I stopped grasping the blade and placed it back into the case panting and having to wipe the sweat from my forehead.

"You seem to be out of practice if grasping caused you to have such a reaction." Merem speculated out loud.

"No, quite the opposite. I've been practicing my structural grasp to make sure I met your expectations. I merely push farther into the past of the blade and for a longer period of time compared to Hrunting and the others." I denied, finally catching my breath.

"Then tell me what you have learned." He almost demanded, yet still holding a layer of politeness around him. I explained what I had learned from the blade. He seemed oddly interested in the fact that I found out it was stolen from the church before it was returned to their vaults, rather than the rest of the tale I learned.

"To think that you were able to learn that the church lost custody of the dagger for a period of time, and after all that hard work to clean up that mess." He let out a childish giggle as if it were some sort of prank.

Without another word he motioned for me to start on the next item. An extremely old piece of wood that was around four inches wide and maybe seven long and about half an inch think. I look at it and start to ponder what it use to be. Placing it on the table and setting my hands on top of it I began to grasp it. It was much harder to grasp than the dagger, almost like I just couldn't understand it as easily. I push onward though, I finally start to find information about the item. It was the remains of the bow used by Odysseus, It was never named though, only ever referred as Odysseus' rigid bow. Through the bow I found how it was enchanted by one of the gods to only be able to be strung and shot by Odysseus. Though it seems that the enchantment wore off after his death so that someone else of skill could use it. But that's as far as I could go for this piece, it felt far more draining than the last.

Finally setting down the remains of the bow and wiping myself down, though this time I was panting from how taxing the grasp was. I turn to Merem, He seem very excited to learn what it was he gave to me. After explaining to him what I have learn he seemed over the moon about what it was.

"Unbelievable, to think that I had his bow for such a long time without knowing it." At that statement I was confused. How could he not have know what he had, or rather how did he know to keep it if he didn't know what it was.

"You must have forgotten, I mentioned that I only kept them for the prana they continuously release. So, while I do know that they are objects of power, or at least used to be, I can not tell what they use to be." He explained as if reading my mind. Slowly I nodded. It also explained why he kept me alive. With how old these things were most if not all of them must have suffered some sort of deterioration that makes them impossible for a normal person to identify.

Without needing to be prompted this time, I went to grab the metal fragment. Like the others I set it on the table and started to grasp it. This time though I could barely get anything at all from the piece of metal. I tried my best but it was hard to find what I was looking for. Eventually I found its name, and what it was used for.

"This is one of the eleven copies of the real Ancile that were made to confuse thieves from taking the real one. So, while it is not the real Ancile, it still was an expertly crafted shield that lasted several battles before being tossed away." I spoke out to Merem in a raspy voice pushing to grasp these items was more taxing than I thought it would be. Even though I haven't use any magecraft sense yesterday I still felt horribly drained. For hopefully the last time, I picked up the shard and placed it in the case. After I placed it in its rightful spot I close the case and turned it back to Merem. He seemed to be in deep thought about what I had said.

"So I only had a counterfeit? Are you absolutely sure?" He asked in a disappointed manner.

"Well, kinda of. It was commissioned by Mars himself to be made as a than that, it was a nearly peerless shield, else it wouldn't have been able to even appear as a fake. So, yes its a fake. But it was made to be one." I finished, feeling like if he thought it were just a fake he might throw it out. Merem looked at my considering my words before slowly nodding as if he agreed.

"I see, I see. This was a very informative trip, I'm very happy to have let you live." He had a smile on his face. I let out a sigh of relief, happy I get to live to see another day.

"Well as we are done here I will take my leave." Standing up he starts to pick up the case.

"Wait!" I yelped out. He looked at me confused. "Stay here for a moment please." I told him and rushed to my room. Inside I made my way to the closest to retrieve the shroud. Walking back to Merem, he was now standing by the table. Though he did not look annoyed or irritated so I assumed I was in the clear. Presenting the shroud to him.

"I accidentally took this from your exhibit." I managed to blurt out.

"Hmmm, you might as well keep that one. It's very boring and not that useful. Merely a holy shroud that binds males. Though if you attack them, the shroud loses its effect. I only had it because the church gave it to me one day for being apart of the burial agency. I truly have no interest or need of it." Merem explained to me in an uninterested voice.

I pulled back the shroud in confusion but decided not to press the issue. Though it was in that moment that I noticed something weird, or at least something that wasn't there.

"I can barely smell you now?" I lightly muttered to myself. Merem apparently heard my and raised an eyebrow to my words. Panic started to settle in as I just said something that could easily be taken as an insult.

"What I meant was that when we first met you had five different smell coming off of you, and that they were all overbearing." I quickly explain not wishing for him to become angry.

"Ah, is this what you smelled?" He said and almost immediately the five scents all returned with a vengeance.

"Y-yes it is" I choked out. The return of the smells caught me off guard.

"What you smell is my and my imagined creatures' prana that we are releasing. The reason you smelled it so clearly last time was because I was not holding it back." He explained all the while the smell started to dissipate.

"Is it normal to smell prana?" I asked confused. Kiritsugu never mentioned something like this when he was teaching me.

"Yes, and no. It's normal for maguses to be able to sense the prana around then, but it differs from person to person. Most people have it from one of their five senses or develop a sort of six sense for it. For you it must be smell." He elaborated.

"Then what was in front of the door to your exhibit also prana?" Dangerous individual or not. He was explaining more things than my father ever did.

Signing he went back to the table and sat down. "Sit. It looks like in exchange for you grasping my collection, I'll be explaining what I can that your father did not." Instead of sitting down right away, I went to brew some more tea. After it was finished I handed a cup to Merem, to which he thanked me.

"To start with, what do you know, whether you can do it or not." he calmly asked.

"Currently I know how to grasp. I'm still working on reinforcement and projection. Other than that and some simple terms used in the moonlit world, practically nothing." He merely frowned at my admittance.

"How can you know so little? I understand that your father died, but even then he should have taught you more than that." Merem seemed down right shocked by the end of his short rant.

"Getting my father to teach me anything was like pulling teeth. It took me two years to even get him to start teaching me magecraft. Anything beyond those three he wouldn't do." I explained my situation.

"To only teach you such useless magecraft when he was renowned as the magus killer is shocking. Even if he couldn't give you his crest that had the inert time sorcery, he could have taught you his other skills." He sighed once again.

"Magus killer?" I asked, never once hearing that term being used.

"So he didn't even tell you that he used to be an assassin of sorts." He was now looking directly into my eyes as if looking for my deceit like this was all one huge joke.

"No, I have never heard of that, and from what I know of my father would never assume it to be true" I was worried. I have never heard of this and it seemed to be a big deal. I had no doubt Merem was tell the truth though, even if I wanted him to be lying.

"That will be left for another day. I'm going to explain what you smelled on the door at my exhibit and then leave. What you smelled was something called a bounded field. Its use was suppose to keep people out and alert me if someone were to sneak in. Which it did. Do you even know that you have a bounded field set up around your property? It's only use from what I can tell is to alert you of hostile intent." What he said surprised me.

"I know of bounded fields, it's just that yours and Tohsaka's field smell so different from mine that I thought they were completely different things." I explained my confusion.

"That's because of the function of the fields. My, and I'll assume the same for this 'Tohsaka', have more hostile fields to keep people away. Your field on the other hand does nothing of the sort." He elaborated. Feeling content with what he has taught me for the day just nodded to him.

"On another note, I would like you to keep this on you as well." He told me as he tossed me a black key. I fumble around trying to catch it without cutting myself. Once I had it safely in my hands, I look at his with a confused face.

"While you seem safe enough in the middle of nowhere, I would prefer you to have something to protect yourself with in case of an emergency. I would like you to stay alive for at least a few more years to help me evaluate my collection." He responded in a bored tone as he continued to sip on his tea. "I will likely return in a month time with more items for inspection. I would prefer you to have more control of your magecraft. At least enough to grasp more than three things for next time. So, until then, this is goodbye." He stood up grabbing onto his case and began to walk out to the door.

"Goodbye, Solomon-san." I called out to him as he opened the door. He looked back to me, bowed and left.

As he left I could only sigh in relief for what was likely the fifth time today. Slowly dropping to the floor, I realized that I was not prepared for anything that happened after I knocked Tohsaka down.

Standing up trade the black key for the shroud and hold it up to my eye level. Now if I remember what Merem said, this shroud binds males. How oddly specific, though if with the knowledge of what it does I do not know how to activate it. Staring at it for a little bit I decided to just flow my prana into it from my hands to see what happens. Nothing, nothing happened. "How do you get it to bind-" it didn't even wait for me to finish the statement before it wrapped itself around me. Starting from the shoulders all the way down to my knees it wrapped and finished within a second. With my legs now bound I lost my balance and fell down on my back. 'Well nice to know it works' I mentally snarked. Not know what to do, I start to wiggle to see if I could get it off. After about ten minutes of tossing around like a fish out of water I realize that I was still feeding prana into it. As soon as I cut the prana from the cloth it loosened.

Standing back up I almost literally gave myself a pat on the back for figuring out how to use the shroud, even if it's only at a rudimentary level. Looking at the shroud I decided that I should try to find a way to keep it on me so that I can use it if I need to. But, excluding the horrible idea of wearing it like a scarf, I couldn't think of a way that made it accessible and convenient.

Setting the shroud aside for the moment I look to the black key I now had. 'I wonder if Merem will keep giving me stuff everytime I see him?' I questioned. It was an oddly thin but long sword that was awkwardly balanced. Why he gave it to me when I had no clue how to use it was beyond me. I took a few practice swings I knew this wasn't something I was going to be able to use on the fly, I'd have to spend time out of my day slowly practicing and learning how to properly use it. Then there was the problem of also having this on my person without someone noticing. Sighing at the thought, I put the sword down on top of the shroud.

Looking at the time it was about three in the morning. Thinking about it, going to sleep now would be the best thing to do, I really shouldn't pull an all nighter on the first day of school. I went to my room, placing the shroud and black key into my closet and changed into sleepwear. Laying down I went to bed for the few short hours that I could.

"Shirou! I'm hungry! Quickly make me breakfast before I have to get to the school." The sound of a fearsome tiger woke me from my dreamless slumber. Slowly I sat up, trying to think about what was happening.

"Shirou! Come on, school starts soon and I need food." Right, this should have been the expected way to wake up. Not something normal like 'Shirou you have school soon. Time to wake up'. Nope I have to be woken up by screams of desire for my cooking. Sighing, I submit to her demands, I move myself to the kitchen still in my sleepwear. I cooked up a simple Japanese breakfast for her. After I finished she took it and left for school. After she left I made my own breakfast and ate it in silence. As soon as I finished eating I went back to the kitchen to cook my lunch for the day and packed it into a bento box.

Looking at the time, I had about an hour to be at the school. Quickly changing into my school uniform, which was just my white shirt with a tan jacket overtop of it along with tan pants, I grabbed my lunch I walked out of the house and started on my way to school. To my surprise, the walk to school wasn't very special. After everything that happened I thought something would happen before I got to school. When I safely entered to school gate I saw several other students. Though some of us came from the same middle school, I wasn't really friends with them. So I ended up standing to the side until the school opened for the students to go to their classes.

I stood there waiting to be let into the school building until I recognized a similar smell of power coming towards me. I turn around to see Rin Tohsaka wearing the female school uniform walking into the area, passing me to talk to a girl with short brown hair and the same uniform.

Still weary of her and the prana that I now know that she is releasing, I stay far away from her. I have enough to stress to deal with because of Merem. I don't need her to throw any surprises as well. So while she seemed like an okay girl, I going to stay out of her radar.

After the bell rand, signalling the students to enter the school building, I went to my classroom assigned to me. The day itself went along fairly normally, mostly just being teachers explaining their courses and the expectations for the students. Later on in the day the students were lead into the courtyard in order to have a club fair.

During the fair Taiga approached me and demanded that I take part in a club. I asked her way and she simply said should would not allow me to be a lazy bum while in high school. With this conversation in mind, I saw a few that looked appealing, such as archery, kendo and student council. Though I decided not to join student council because it was an election sort of process that I didn't really want to be apart of. So, that left either kendo or archery club. To be honest it was a close call, archery teaches the kyudo technique in the way of a meditation practice. Kendo on the other hand was appealing because I felt like it would be useful and possibly enjoyable to learn to fight with a sword. In the end I decided to go with archery because Taiga was one of the instructors, giving me someone to know and interact with.

With me signing up for the club, I was allowed to leave for the day. I started to make my way out to the front gate of the school to leave but was stopped by a student that was slightly taller than me.

"Hello, my name is Issei Ryuudou, I would like to introduce myself as I'll be in the elections for student council.l" He bowed politely to me.

"Hello, Ryuudou-san, my name is Shirou Emiya." I bowed back to him. Not sure what else to say I start back on my walk to leave the school.

"Ryuudou-san, so nice to see you going for student president again. Ah and nice to see you as well Emiya-kun" Rin approached us from the courtyard with a sickening sweet smile.

"Tohsaka-san, am I to expect you as our vice-president again?" Issei replied showing the bare minimum politeness he could get away Rin took it well as her smile never dropped, which caused Issei to frown.

"Not this year, I have other important duties to attend to for my family. I hope you won't let the school fall apart in my absence." I don't know what was going on between them but I knew that I should leave before this storm pulls me in as well. I was about to do just that but.

"Emiya-kun, aren't you going to say hello, after we had such a nice day out yesterday I thought we were on good terms." Damn my luck. I turn back to the two of them. Rin was sporting a sweet smile that was putting me on edge, while Issei was looking at me like I kicked a dog. This has to be a trap, I can see it in her eyes. I don't know how, but if I say the wrong thing something wrong is going to happen.

"Sorry, Tohsaka-san. I didn't want to impose on your conversation with Ryuudou-san." I calmly say with a bow at the end, not confirming or denying her statement.

"So you bewitched him as well." I barely her Issei mutter, though I doubt he wanted me to hear that. Apparently Rin also heard him as she almost dropped her smile.

"I'll have you know what I have never 'bewitched' anyone. Emiya-kun bumped into me yesterday and we ended up going shopping together." She exclaimed. Now I might not be the brightest, but I was pretty sure that was not how yesterday went. It was more I knocked her down and then she held my honor like a leash to do her bidding for the day. Issei looked over to me for confirmation. I looked back to Rin who, without Issei watching her, started to glare at me in order to keep me from denying her statement.

"She did not bewitch me to do anything, I merely felt bad for knocking her over." I elaborated trying to appease both sides. Issei calmed down a bit, while Rin seemed a little disappointed but didn't push it.

"I suppose you are alright." Issei releanted.

"Well it's time for me to go, Emiya would you be so kind as to walk me out?" It wasn't really a question. So I bowed to Issei and walked after her. The walk was quiet for the most part and I was going to assume that it would be for the entire walk, which I would have been completely fine with as I still didn't know how to feel about the prana I could smell on her person. Though that all went out the window when she glanced at me for a moment and a mischievous smile formed on her lips.

"So why weren't you trying to hide the fact that we went on a date from Ryuudou-san?" She asked in the most innocent voice she had. Such a statement caught me off guard completely, such to the point I tripped over my feet and landed on my face. I quickly stood back up to face her, though I still couldn't form any words. I had no idea what she was talking about, that couldn't have been a date.

"I-I, Th-that wasn't, I-I mean, I d-didn't think." I could only barely get out of my mouth. Scrambling to think of what to say or explain myself. Luckily I didn't have to as she burst out in laughter. Realising what she did I started to frown, though I doubted it had any real effect with how red my face was at the moment. If anything it only made her laugh harder.

"That wasn't funny." I complained.

"Maybe not to you, but to me it was priceless." Rin managed to get out once her giggles calmed down, though her grin never vanished. We went the rest of the walk silent until we made it to the road we would go separate ways.

"Thank you for walking me Emiya-kun, I hope you have a lovely day." Rin called out with a bow.

"You as well Tohsaka-san." I replied and bowed in a similar fashion. After that we went our separate ways, it only taking a few minutes to make it back to my home.

Finally home I decided to try to snoop around my father's room for a bit to see if he left anything that could tell me more about him. Looking around his room I started to smell something. It smelled like a weak bounded field. Following it to its source, was a small trap door that I never noticed before. A sense of foreboding came over me as I opened it to find a latter that lead to some sort of basement.

At the bottom of the stair was a small room no more than six by six feet with a desk, bunch of filing cabinets a trunk on the far side of the room. The desk was old and covered in dust and the cabinets and trunk were in no better position. The first thing I did was walk up to the desk and check to see if he left anything of importance on it. In one of the drawers I found what appear to be a book with a pure black cover. When I opened it to see what was inside, it was written in a language I could not understand. Sighing at a lost opportunity, I sat the book down. Then I went to the cabinets. Upon opening those of found a large amount of papers mostly in english. Though the few I did end finding that were in japanese were not encouraging. They were mission details and conditions. So I was right to assume that Merem was telling the truth. Reading through one of the missions I saw why my father took these jobs, to be a hero. This one, and I assume the others, where describing men who have killed or were going to kill a large amount of people.

After setting the reports down, moved onto the trunk. It has a large lock on it with no real way for me to open. So, instead of leaving it I did something very stupid. I created one of my circuits and started to reinforce the lock. After a few seconds of doing nothing but push prana into the lock to 'strengthen' it, it fell apart. It couldn't hold the amount of prana I put into it, and like an air balloon with to much air, it blew up, or rather fell apart in the locks case. With the lock gone I opened up the trunk to find something I wasn't expecting. A few guns and a large amount of rounds for them. Once I thought it through, it made sense he would have these but seeing them was something else. After gawking at them for a few moments I picked up one of them and tried to grasp it to look into its past. Unlike everything I have recently been grasping to learn of their past, the gun didn't show me anything. I could see how it is used, how to take it apart and put it back together, but I couldn't see into its past. After my failed attempt, I put the gun down into the trunk and shut it.

Being finished with my discoveries for the day I grabbed the book and went upstairs to change. As I got to my room I started to change into my sleepwear, I remembered that the black key and shroud were still here. I look at them considering how I should handle them. I can't very well keep them out in the open, but I don't think I should leave them here. I'd rather get in trouble for having them than allow something bad to happen because I didn't have them. Thinking of ideas for keeping them on me, I had a thought.

Starting with one end of the shroud, I slowly began to wrap the shroud around my left arm, trying my best to not make to to tight. When I got to my shoulder, I manage to use about two fifths of the shroud. Then with the other end of the shroud, I began the process for my other arm. By the time I finished I had both of my arms covered in the red shroud and fair portion of it hanging down my back. I started to do short stretches to make sure I still had full mobility. After it passed that little test I had a thought, 'how the hell am I going to use it when it's wrapped around my arms like this?'. Not willing to just drop this way of carrying the shroud, started to pour prana into it. Like last time it was unresponsive, but I knew what to say for it to bind someone. This time I need to find out if I can just move it without binding myself.

Closing my eyes I started to visualize what I wanted the cloth to do. 'Loosen' I started to mentally chant to myself. Slowly but surely the cloth started to obey what I wanted it to do, having the side that were wrapped around my arm start to loosen until the shroud was practically hanging off of them. Looking at my small success, I started to think the reverse, 'tighten'. Very slowly the shroud started to wrap itself around my arms to the position I had it before. 'Okay, the shroud works. Now what to do about that sword?' I mentally question myself.

Picking up the blade, I start to fiddle with it. 'Something tells me keeping it in my pocket would be a bad I idea.' I mentally chuckle at the thought. Looking at it for a little bit longer I just couldn't think of a way for it to be kept on my person with how long it was. Then I had an idea, what if I looked into the blades past to see how others manage to do it. I've never grasped something for such a specific purpose before, so I wasn't sure if it would even work. I thought about creating my circuit, only to stop right there. 'How did I manage my prana into the shroud without creating a circuit?' I asked myself looking down to the shroud still wrapped snugly around my arms. With this thought I tried to activate my grasping spell. To my surprise it worked, if I little more strained as I was still confused as to where exactly was channeling my prana. Searching to what I needed to know of the sword, I found that there is a way to change the size of the blade using my magical energy along with a way to disperse the blade completely.

With this discovery, I managed to shrink the blade down to a third of its original meter long state making it more to a small dagger than a sword. With the black key now small enough to not be obstructed I carefully thread it through the wraps of the holy shroud without it touching my skin. This way I had a far ability to grab for it in a tight situation. With the shroud and the black key in place I look in the mirror. 'Well now I look like a priest ready to kill someone.' I sigh at the depressing thought. I truly did look like someone about to kill another. But, it still was the only way for me to keep the items on hand without them being exposed and get me in trouble. 'The things I do to stay prepared.' I sighed again. Making small little adjustments to make it a bit more comfortable, I throw a long sleeve shirt on top of them. Going to a mirror, I check myself out. From what I could tell I would highly doubt anyone would be able to tell I have either of them. At best they might see the shroud and assume I have a red undershirt on. Satisfied with my results I finish changing to my night cloths. Upon finishing changing I hear the door slam open.

"Shirou! I'm hungry and tired! Make me something to eat!" That damn woman, can't there be any other reason to see me other than to demand food. No of course not, that would be ridiculous. God forbid the day I have to leave for any period of time and she has to fend for herself. Sighing the sigh I have officially reserved for her, I march into the kitchen to prepare her food. At least with Merem saying that he won't return for a month, I won't have anything to stressful to deal with until then.

 **Author's notes:**

I am truly surprised with the response to this story so far. I wasn't expecting this at all. Also, extra thanks to Gashadokuro Amanojaku for pointing out some logical flaws in my previous chapter. Being new to this I'm still not thinking everything through the way I should and made mistakes. To which I did update that chapter so shirou had more consistent reactions and responses to Merem. Also, because of hat review I tried a bit harder on this chapter, though I sure I miss or forgot something.


	3. Chapter 3

After preparing an extravagant breakfast, that I have no doubt that Taiga will shovel down without time to appreciate what I have made. I wait for Taiga to show up for to start what will be the beginning of the day. I've noticed that time seems to be going very fast, with days following a sort of schedule. The schedule being; wake up, get dressed, make breakfast for myself and Taiga, go to morning practice for archery club(if we have it), go to class, attend the afternoon club practice, go home and make dinner, go to Kiritsugu's basement to read his notes and missions, practice my magecraft, then sleep. It has been this way with little to no variance for the past two weeks. With the only real exciting thing to happen was what I have been able to learn from my dads mission reports.

Around six Taiga purst through the door screaming for food. Only to stop when she saw that it was already put out for her. Then to immediately start shoving it down her throat. I sigh as she didn't even acknowledge me. As soon as she was done, we started to walk to the school for the morning practice for today. Something I didn't think would happen would be how easy archery would be. After Taiga explained kyudo and the eight steps that it follows, I could hit the target with no problem, and have yet to miss a shot. To which frustrates everyone in the club that I was doing better than Taiga herself. Though it never seemed odd to me, more natural or instinctive. The steps put me in the perfect mindset for the task, making it a very soothing for me and a great way to start and end my day at school.

I kept at archery for the rest of the practice mindlessly until it was time for class. I went through my classes slowly yet consistently, nothing that really stood out. Classes are not to difficult for me, with my only real struggle being english. I try harder in english now than I had before so I can read the various note that my father left that were written in that language, including that tough black leather bound book. Though during the lunch break I normally sat with the newly elected class president, Issei Ryuudou in the student council room. Which normally consisted of him complaining about something that has broken and new fixed. Sometimes I offer to help if it was easy to get away with using my grasping. This mostly consist of small machines like the air conditioner, or a projector.

"Good morning Ryuudou-san, Emiya-kun." Though today it seems to be one of the days Rin wanted to come by and talk to us. Which normally ends with Issei grumbling and my mouth shut in fear of it being turned against me.

"Good morning Tohsaka-san." I let out, watching her carefully.

"Morning to you Tohsaka-san. Now what business do you have here?" Issei's reply held a fair amount of restraint to be honest. He must be in a good mood.

"Just here to make sure the council isn't falling apart without me holding it together." She answers in a sweet voice and kind smile. Issei immediately took offense at the remark. Claiming that it implies either the councils over reliance on Rin, or Issei's inability as the president. Knowing him, he took it as both. This leading to one of their many 'disagreements'. I tend to zone these out in favor of eating, as they have next to nothing to do with me. Though, this time I am distracted by something a bit more potent on Rin. Unlike normal when she has something releasing prana that leaks out, this time is gushing out filling the entire room in its scent. So, I accidentally spent a portion of time staring are the epicenter of the prana. Which happened to be in her pocket.

"Emiya-kun, is something wrong?" Rin asked me, snapping me out of my stupor. My eyes snap to hers and I begin to panic. Can't let her know I could smell it, but I shouldn't appear to weird for staring. Clearly the time it is taking me to answer is annoying her, as her stare starts to turn into a glare. What makes it worse is that she starts to reach down to her pocket where I was staring, which would show that I knew something was there. So with that I quickly yell something out which would easily distract her.

"S-sorry I-I was just thinking that this is exactly why there were so many rumors about you and Issei being in a relationship!" I panicked out a lie that would warrant her attention. Which luckily did end up stopping her from getting her hand into her pocket. It also had the effect of causing Issei to start coughing from the water he just took a drink from at that moment.

"W-what rumors?" Rin stuttered out with wide eyes. Her face turning a sharp turn of red. Yet it disappeared as soon as it came as her wide eyes turned sharp and malicious.

"Emiya-kun. You wouldn't be the one to spread such horrible and inaccurate rumors would you?" She asked slowly forming the most terrifying smile I've ever seen while taking a step to me.

"O-of course not Tohsaka-san! I would never!" I squeaked out. Standing up and taking a step back. Issei stayed where he was, yet starting to move his glare between the two of us.

"Then how could there be rumors, as you are the only other person who knows I come here." Rin states calmly taking another step towards me. And with that statement I realized my folly. Without anyone knowing she is here, no one besides myself can make rumors. So my options at this point are; dig a bigger hole and keep lying and say that I heard it somewhere, fess up that I was just messing with them, or lie and say that I did in fact spread rumors. I see no way out without my impending death. So I chose the one that might at least grant me a painless one.

"Fine, you got me. I made it up to mess with you a bit." I tried my best to say clearly with a sheepish smile, while simultaneously praying for mercy. Though it didn't keep me from continuously taking subtle steps toward the door away from the fuming Rin.

"Oh so it was just a joke, was it." Her smile got wider, and kept taking another step to me. Sensing I clearly made mistakes, I look over to Iseei in hopes to be saved by the monk in training. As our eyes met he looked away from me back to his meal, clearly leaving to my impending doom. I look back to Rin, who hasn't dropped that damn smile.

"It was quite the joke Emiya-kun. Would you like to hear one of mine?" She made another step. I knew what fights I could and couldn't win. I, at this point, had my back against the door. So I swiftly opened, stepped through and shut the door. Quickly moving away from the bomb I had lit. I barely turned the corner by the time I heard the door slam back open.

"Emiya! Come back here!" She yelled out. 'Nope, I choose life.' I mentally think as I reach the cafeteria to disappear into the crowd.

After lunch, which was me playing a good game of hide or die with Rin, I finish the rest of my afternoon classes in a similar fashion to the morning half. Moving onto afternoon practice is a bit more hectic than morning. This being because it's the required practice, so everyone is there instead of the third that show up in the morning. Also this is the practice that I associate with Shinji Matou in. I like to say we are friends but It's a little difficult to tell sometimes. His conceited attitude are put offing to most people, yet I can normally ignore it. He treats me a bit better than most and doesn't ignore any of my attempts to start a conversation with him.

So when I got to the practice I looked around for him, only to see he is occupied with two of the other first year girls whose names escape me. Seeing this, I quietly move to my own spot after retrieving my gear. After maybe a dozen perfect shots, I hear someone approached me.

"Hello senpai." I hear a quiet voice behind me I turn to see Sakura Matou, Shinji's sister, who stopped few steps from me. Normally I would have been good friends with her, She is a shy girl with a good heart. Coming from her middle school, to walk with her brother home. I have had fairly enjoyable conversations with her. But that's where I stop the interactions with her, because like Rin she has some sort of prana leak off of her. Though this time I had to objectively look for it like it was covered or some other method of keeping it suppressed. This smell from her was awful when I finally found it. It, in comparison, made Rin smell amazing and Merem smell pleasant. I don't know what exactly she is doing that makes her prana smell like that but it can't be good, and with only a slight possibility of it being neutral. So I keep myself on her good side, yet at the same time firmly away from her.

"Good afternoon, Matou-san" I calmly reply turning back to my target, not being impolite yet still dismissive of a conversation.

"How was your day today?" She asked politely, not moving from her spot.

"It was a bit stressful to be honest. I kicked a hornets nest, and suffered the consequences." I said alluding to my encounter with Rin. I wonder why Sakura tries to have such conversations with me so often. She almost always talks to me ever sense Shinji introduced us.

"I hope nothing bad happened." She states quietly and turned to stare at the target that now had five arrows stuck in the center circle.

I didn't continue the conversation with her in hopes that she would walk away, yet it didn't happen. She contently continued to watch me shoot more arrows into my target. I was able to shoot a few more before I heard someone start to walk up to us. "There you are Sakura! I was wondering where you were." I hear Shinji's voice call out in a fake worry. 'Lies, she is always with me when she is early.' I think to myself. "I was just talking about you to a friend of mine and she would love to meet you." He grabbed her by her arm and started to walk off with her.

"A-alright onii-san. Have a good day senpai. She called out to me as she was being pulled to the other side of the room.

"To you as well." I state simply, not even turning to glance in her direction. Hoping my more dismissive attitude will get her uninterested in me. I feel horrible for doing it, but I already have Rin so close to me. I can't hold the facade of ignorance with her as well, eventually juggling them will get me to mess up. I gave a sigh, thinking about how she could have been such a nice friend to have. Yet I couldn't risk it until I either come out to them as a magus or manage to put more distance between Rin and myself. Perhaps it will just be another thing I can ask Merem his opinion on my situation when he returns. Though I have to be careful not to agitate him with to many questions.

After practice ended I started my lonely walk home. It gives me a little bit of time to think of the events of the day and if I need to do anything before or after dinner for the next day. Today was very uneventful and stayed true to my internal schedule so nothing really needed my attention, so my mind drifted off to other thoughts that I have been pondering. Mostly to how my magic as been working out.

With my odd ability to use a circuit that don't need to be crafted, I spend less time for the creation of one and never feel anywhere near as much pain as before. Along with this, I had noticed that my magic worked better on the items I grasped for merem than other items I have tried it on. With this in mind, I started to for ideas of why that would be. I started with the idea that the older the object was the better it worked. Though I was able to cross this idea out soon after because the black key I was given was merely seven years old, and I couldn't even work well with items that were older than that, such as the walls of my home. Next my thought went to an idea that my magic works best on metal items. This had mixed results. While it felt true as most of the items were metal and most things I worked with while home were also metal, there were always outliers that troubled me. The bow of Odysseus was made of olive wood, and the cloth that made the holy shroud that I wear. With this in mind I go a bit narrower in my thoughts and think maybe it's only weapons and armor. Though this idea still has flaws as I still can grasp things like knives and forks and spoons. I'll just have to wait until Merem comes back to discuss it with him, as I'm sure learning the limits of my abilities will be useful for himas well.

At the end of my thoughts I made it to the house. Once inside I made my way straight to the kitchen to start dinner. Lucky, Taiga is not coming over today for dinner. I had to warn her that if she kept coming over she would have to pay for the food she eat after my groceries cost tripled. So, now she only comes over every two days. Which means that I don't have to spend so much time cooking or entertaining her. With this in mind it only took my about twenty to thirty minutes to cook and eat my food. After finishing my meal and handling the dishes, I made my way down to the secret basement in my father's old room to read threw more of the notes.

By now I have gone through enough pages of mission report and other such documents to fill a book or two, and those were the only the ones that I could read. For the most part they split into two seperate kind of reports; mission assignments details, and mission aftermath reports. The mission details simply give information about a new target that my father was assigned to eliminate and the reward for the task. When there were the aftermath reports were made by father detailing whether or not the assignment was completed or not, and the details about the state he left everything in. Which for the most part all of these were stated to be completed. With, in my father's opinion, minimal casualties. Though that could easily range from ten people to one hundred. Despite those unfortunate details, that wasn't what caught my attention in these reports. I was more interested in the very few that were inconclusive. Most the time that happened it was because the target left the area before he arrived, another group destroyed the target, or they manage to slip away.

One specific report was of a dead apostle that happened to disappear into a city that was nearby. It wasn't a very dangerous apostle, which is why my father never gave a serious chase. Believing that his time was better spent dealing with more 'pressing' events. This took place years ago. From what little information I actually have on this mission, from another aftermath report, the apostle was found later in a city called 'Miyori". This information put me off. There could be a very dangerous creature and no one was willing to deal with it just because I wasn't just as dangerous as other dead apostles. It wasn't sitting well with me that it was brushed aside so easily. 'I think I'm going to pay this 'Miyori city' a visit tomorrow' I mentally conclude. I don't know exactly what I was going to do but I just couldn't stay here knowing what I know.

My train of thought was disturbed when my alarm rang out. I have to have this here because one day last week I got so immersed in what I was reading that I ended up staying up till morning. Taiga, who couldn't find the trapdoor, panicked and called the police and her grandfather to find me. I was never more panicked with I got upstairs to see the two groups in my house searching for clues. So grabbing my alarm, I went outside to my shed to begin my magecraft training. There I set my alarm for around two hours as I ended up passing out in the shed one time from over practice. That time Taiga did end up finding me, and she still has yet to let me live it down.

Placing my alarm behind me, I pull out my black key that I still keep bound to my arm with the shroud. Though this is about the only time I keep it there. I take it out when I go to school because once I nearly got caught with it while I was helping out in a classroom. So now, unless I feel the need, I leave the black key home. Though I still take the holy shroud wherever I go, as it's inconspicuous enough for me to not worry about being seen with by normal people. Though I nearly had a panic attack when I caught Rin gazing at it the first time she visited the student council room. Then looked at me and stated that it was a bit early to be wearing so much extra clothing.

After returning the blade to its proper size, I place my hands on it and muttered 'trace, on' to begin my practice. At first, I start by grasping the blade. Looking into the blade, it was not surprising that I have learned more it compared to my first time grasping the black key. Now I was able to tell when the blade was crafted, who the other two owners were before myself and Merem, how many creatures and what kind it has been used to kill. Oddly enough that wasn't all. I, slowly mind you, been able to understand how to fight with this weapon. Seeing that it's meant to throw or thrust to pierce its target. Then, when applying this to my short practices with it, it starts to feel better. Though I still can't think of a good moment to throw the black key at a target if it leaves me without a weapon afterwards. I have also been able to learn it could be used to pierce the shadow of a target to immobilize them. Though that would yet again leave me without a weapon.

After grasping the black key for a bit to see if anything new came up, I stopped and set the black key down. Moving on to my more stressful magic to perform, projection. This is something that I was getting better at but still felt like I was missing something. Closing my eyes I held out my hand, using the mental image of a small cube, I start to perform the projection. The cube, like all other objects that I project, was hollow and fragile. It only looked like a cube, not able to do anything that a cube should do. I just couldn't think of a way to fill it. Though with the projection made. I moved on to my last magecraft to practice, reinforcement.

With this I tried to make the cube more stable, so that it could stay a few more seconds before the world got rid of it. This lasted for about five minutes before I had to let go because of the strain. After letting the cube turn to dust, I went back to the black key. Putting my hands on it once again I start to reinforce it. It was a little bit harder to reinforce the black key because of its complexity compared to my projected cube. But the results speak for themselves. With this reinforced black key, I was more than capable of cutting threw the iron pipes that I kept back here in the shed.

After holding that reinforcement for around five minutes, I dropped it. Picking up a rag that I kept in the shed, I wipe my forehead getting rid of all the sweat forming. Taking the moment to take a quick break, I lay on my back to relax. After I lay there for a minute or two, I moved onto my last object to reinforce. I slowly unwrapped the shroud from my arms, seeing no point in wasting my prana to do so, and sat it on the floor next to my black key. I placed my hands onto the shroud and begin to pour my prana into it.

This was much harder compared to the cube or the black key. Mostly because of how much larger the shroud was compared to either of them. Then it also came from what I wanted to reinforce it with. With the blade it was either sharpness, sturdiness or its effectiveness against none humans, the cube was just the strength of the walls. The shroud had far more options. I could reinforce its texture, making it softer. I could make it stronger to resist being punctured or torn. I could even reinforce it ability to bind males, even though it was the hardest thing about it to reinforce. Or I could reinforce several of those things at once. Currently though, if I push myself, could reinforce reinforce is texture and the strength of the fabric at the same time. The magical ability of the shroud is too much for me to add in anything else.

After going through and reinforcing different aspects of the shroud for a period of time the alarm finally rang out. After turning the alarm off, I began to re-wrap the shroud onto my arms and shrink the black key to place it back in the shroud. As always I ended up finishing around two in the morning. With it now being Saturday I would be able to sleep in till around ten, then make taiga her lunch. Then I will think of something for this dead apostle in Miyori. With this in mind I head up to bed.

Normally when I sleep I dream of fire. The hell that I went through when I was young. Though tonight I dreamt of something else, something new. I felt fully conscious and in control of my body. Yet, the world I found myself in was not normal. I didn't know why I thought this was a different world but I did, it just felt off and not of earth. It was hard to tell it looks like though as it was hazy and inconsistent. The ground itself was like a swamp and unstable, feeling as if I would fall through it if I put to much pressure on it. The air was like a fog that I couldn't truly see through. I looked up but I couldn't really see the sky, still just fog that seemed to be covering everything.

I start to mindlessly walk through the new area I find myself in to see if I could find anything. Eventually I did end up finding something, a knife. Yet I knew this knife, it was my knife. Sticking into the ground that was a bit more solid than the surrounding area. It has it blade sticking into the ground with the hilt up towards the sky. I squat down to have a close inspection. To find that it is one in fact one of my knives. At the same time if isn't my knife, it didn't have some of the same scratches or dull spots as my own. It for all intents and purposes looked brand new. I didn't understand it really, so I tried to pick it up to grasp it. It took an odd amount of effort to pluck the blade from the ground. Grasping it only told me what I already knew, I was my knife that I got from Taiga three years ago in a chiefs set for my birthday.

Sighing, I set the knife back down into the ground to continue exploring the area. Though the ground quickly turned back into mush after leaving the immediate area around the knife. After what feels like eternity dragging myself through this mush of ground I started to feel the ground become more solid and the haze surrounding the world start to clear. Going towards the center of the more solid and stable ground I found something I wasn't expecting. It was Hrunting sitting into the ground much like the knife was before, yet once again It wasn't Hrunting.

This Hrunting was completely whole, blade and all. It was surreal to see it like this. I slowly start to walk up to it. Unlike the knife, I could easily reach it while standing. I went grab hold of it to see if I could grasp it. I could, and was able to see it much more clearly than before. Going all the way to how it is made of iron, and tempered in blood. How it was known to be infallible until Beowulf's attack on Grendel's mother. To be left in the cave with the remaining corpse of Grendel's mother. Only to be found by the church three hundred years later during an expedition of the area, and kept safe sense then. To finally be added to Merem's collection Ten years ago as a means of compensation for his cooperation.

I was shocked to be able to grasp it here and couldn't even tell if it was true or not. I place a firm grip on the blade to try and draw it from the ground to have a better idea of the weapon. Once in my grasp I couldn't draw it from the ground. I felt amazing strain from even trying. Taking a second to catch my breath, I try to think why I got so tired from just pulling on it. I couldn't think of anything so I go to try again. This time pulling with all my high school might. I manage to start to feel it make a very small but real movement from the ground. Yet it caused me to collapse to the ground. I couldn't stop myself from landing on the ground in a loud thump. In a sitting position with my legs underneath me, slowly my vision began to fade and the last thing I saw was my reflection in Hrunting before closing my eyes

When I opened them back up I was in my room on my futon, and with a quick glance at a clock showing it was seven in the morning. This was not the odd thing, the odd thing was that I was drenched in sweat and felt horrible. The dream felt surreal at this point with what I saw and did. Yet, unlike normal dreams it didn't seem to be fading into my subconscious. Sitting up I checked to see if anything else was different. All I could tell was that my body was burning up. Not that I was sick and running a fever but as if I strained my magic circuit far to much.

Not knowing how to handle this situation I start by going to bathroom and cleaning myself off. After cleaning myself off and putting on my cloths, shroud and black key included, I went downstairs to make breakfast. Something quick and easy to settle my mind over what I just experienced. While eating I thought of the dream I had. I couldn't really understand what it meant or what it was supposed to tell me. Yet, I couldn't help but think it was important. The fact that I could grasp Hrunting there despite that it was only a dream was odd and meaningful. As well as it felt so real when I gripped its hilt. I'll have to ask Merem if he could bring Hrunting over one of these days to see if what I grasped about it was really true.

After finishing my thoughts and my food, I went back to the basement to look any more information of the apostle that I was going to search for. Going over the information that I had once more the most important points I memorized. Like how his name was Riku Mizuyo, he is a young apostle with only the most basic of skills. He use to be just a normal human with no experience with the moonlit world. Though he still young, only recently moving up from a ghoul, he is extremely weak. By comparison his power is barely that of a ghoul, if not a strong member of the dead. Interestingly though his location at Miyori was recent, a few years before my father died. So it is still possible for it to still be there, if only a little unlikely. Though all of this could have easily changed as it has been nearly fifteen years since this information has been sent out, excluding the location. Thinking this information through, I think I could manage to get to this city to at least see if the apostle was still there, and if it was see what it was doing. At best, it was already handled and wasn't a problem anymore. At worse, it was still there and terrorizing the people of the town. Though the most likely scenario was that it moved on into hiding. Though I still feel that it is right to check just in case.

I checked a clock to see that it was getting around nine, so I went upstairs to prepare Taiga's lunch for the day. By ten I had a full meal ready and waiting for her, mostly to bribe her to let me leave the house of an unspecified amount of time. Not even a minute after lunch was on the table she burst through the door.

"Shirou, It smell amazing." She screamed out dashing to the table to eat. I had out about as much food for five people, but with the way she was inhaling it, It wouldn't last.

"Taiga, I'm going out for a few hours in Miyori city to meet some business associates of Kiritsugu that I have come into contact with." I calmly state while eating my own, reasonable, portion of food.

"Do you need me there as your guardian?" She asks between mouthfuls of food. Not bothering to look at me.

"No, there is nothing to sign or anything of the sort, just merely to acquaint myself with them." I respond carefully, last thing I need is for her to try and come along to a potentially dangerous situation.

"When do you expect to be back then?" She asks finally looking up from the food that has magically disappeared.

"Late tonight, or if it truly take to long, my father's associates will place me in a hotel in the city for the night." I lie as well as I possibly could. I still doubt he is going to be there so I should have to do anything but look around and then come home. On the off chance he is in the city and takes enough of my time to warrant it, I'll bring enough money for one night in a hotel then come back.

She narrows her eyes at me, looking for any clues in my expression to see if I was lying. I did my best to hold a poker face, but it was something I was never known to do well. So instead of letting her keep staring into my soul, I got up to make a dessert to distract her.

"What would you like to have for dessert to tide you over until I get back?" The question had instantaneous results as she started to drool and have a dreamy expression in her eyes. Completely forgotten to the fact I was leaving.

"Make me a cake!" She demanded. I just stared at her. I was expecting something a little less time consuming but relented. At least this gave me a plausible excuse if my pseudo hunt takes too much time. So I spent the next hour and a half making the cake batter, baking the cake and applying chocolate icing to it. Not my best creation but for now it will have to do, as I didn't have any preparation time. Not that Taiga cared, she devoured the cake in less than ten minutes.

"Thank you very much Shirou! Have fun doing whatever you said you had to do!" Wow, she didn't even remember what I was going to do. Clearly the best choice of guardian for me. I let out my special taiga sigh after I heard her close the door. 'At the very least she didn't make anything difficult for leaving.' I thought as I finish up my dishes.

I went back down to the secret basement to plan out exactly what I needed and was going to do. I knew I was going to bring the shroud and the black key those were no brainers. But what else should I get. I spare a moment to think of the guns my father had, but quickly dismiss the thought. I have no experience with them and was more likely to shoot myself than to hit a target, let alone an apostle. I went through the trunk to see if I missed anything. After slowly and carefully pulling all the guns and ammo out of it, I found a false bottom. Which I found odd, such a mundane way of hiding something. Pulling it out, I found an old coat and another book, this one in japanese so I was able to read it, and finally a few pictures.

The coat I assume would be the one that he used during mission, as it had several pockets and holsters for guns and ammo. Yet it was too large for me to use effectively, even if I could use the guns that went with it. The book on the other hand was much more useful. It seemed to be a contact book. Sporting names, method of contact, and the field of expertise that they followed. Though the downsides that it had was that it was likely to be outdated. Even if they weren't outdated the method of contact tended to be magical in nature that I couldn't understand let alone use. Maybe less than a tenth of the list of contacts had a phone number that may or may not work. Then I wouldn't know if they speak japanese besides inferring from their names. Lastly there's a always the possibility they won't help or something worse if I have to contact someone.

Yet even with these negatives, as a last resort it would probably be useful to have the book on me just in case something happens that I need someone's help or opinion. I place the book on the table to pack when I'm about to leave.

Then I went to look at the pictures that were there. To my great surprise they were of him and a woman, well some of them had Kiritsugu in them. All of the pictures though were of this woman. This woman looked extremely pale with long white hair, and sporting captivating red eyes and always a smile. She wore a white dress that had short sleeves with gold trim on them. There were only six pictures but they were all of this woman. I didn't find any names or words on any of the pictures so I couldn't find out who this was but I could tell from how she acted in the pictures that she had some for a relationship with Kiritsugu. Though the pictures were always in the same or similar buildings. The two that Kiritsugu was in, he looked happy. 'I wonder where this woman is?' I asked to myself.

I picked up the coat, and with the pictures, sat them back in the trunk. Then placed the false bottom back on and then the guns on top of it. Returning the trunk to the way I found it in. 'All that work and I only come out with a small book' I sigh thinking how underprepared I was going to be when I left. I picked up the book to head upstairs to grab money for the trip. Enough for a bus there and back as well as enough for a hotel, then even a little more just in case. A far portion of the money I have been saving for a period of time but nothing I can't live without.

After gathering all my things I go over the crude plan I had in my mind. Get to the town, quietly and quickly travel around the town looking for anything out of the ordinary. Keeping my nose up and sniffing for prana that could signal something of the magical nature. If I find it, do something to deal with it. If not, leave satisfied you actually tried to help. 'Truly nothing could go wrong' I mentally sign at my primitive plan.

By the time I leave it's approaching noon. I got on a bus that took around two hours to get to Miyori. I wanted to get home around ten so I had around six hours before I had to get back to the bus station. Miyori itself wasn't that large of a city, at least compare to Fuyuki which had several sections to it. Though Miyori was mostly an urban environment so it was densely crowded while I walked around looking for anything. It took some time to move around and I still wasn't even sure what I would be looking for besides some sort of scent that set me off.

Around two hours into my search I started to pick up on something. It was hard to smell and was fading fast. I started to continue in the direction that I smelled it in to try to approach it. Yet, it kept getting in and out of my noses limit ever couple of minutes. Eventually it started to smell closer than before so I could properly follow it without too much of a hassle. After another twenty minutes of following it, I walked toward an alley. I could immediately smell a weak bounded field cover the entrance so that normal people would not enter it. I had a very bad feeling about this, clearly this was set up for me and was going to be a trap of sorts. Yet if it was Riku Mizuyo than it should be as simple as using the holy shroud to bind him long enough for me to get close and pierced his heart with the black key.

With that plan in mind I walked through the bounded field, still feeling as if something horrible I was forgetting. As I walked further into the alley I tried to think of what I could possible be missing that would be giving me such a sense of dread. The report stated that this apostle would be weak, that even I would know more about the moonlit world than he would. Then it hit me, I knew more about the magical world than Riku Mizuyo. This caused me to stop in my tracks, looking back to the entrance of the alley that seem so very far away now that I was just about to hit a intersection with another alley. The entrance that had a bounded field around it, a field that I couldn't make. More importantly a field that Riku Mizuyo shouldn't know how to make unless someone was helping him.

It was at that moment I could smell something behind me around the corner of the alley. I turn and completely dismiss the blade of the black key to let the handle drop into my hand. Closer the smell started to approach, I simply waited to see who or what it was. Not risking the unknown to try and attack without knowing who it was. Finally the person emanating the smell rounded the corner and I was faced with a woman. A woman who smelled like a corpse. She has black hair wound up in a messy bun and was wearing a very suggestive red dress. She also has unnaturally piercing red eyes. I already feel something tugging at my mind to simply do nothing but I push past that feeling to take a step back.

"Now now, little boy. After such a fun game of cat and mouse why would you step away from me?" She put on such an amused smile. Yet she was right, I did come here for answer so I might as well try to get them. I stood up a bit straighter, putting up a determined expression.

"Though how a magus manage to find me is surprising. I was keeping a low profile and thought I was doing a good job at it." She carried on not caring for my change in attitude. "So tell me, how did you find me?" She asked looked straight into my eyes.

I could feel something in my mind tempting me to tell her everything, about my father, his files, Riku Mizuyo, her scent. I couldn't hold it all back so I only let one of those things through.

"I can smell you." I spoke through gritted teeth. I was starting to form a headache from resisting and I didn't know what else to do.

"You know it very rude to tell a lady that she smells." She says through a fake pout. "Though it's an interesting way to sense my prana. Tell me boy, why have you come here? To kill me?" She spoke breaking her pout to let out an amused tone, clearly unthreatened by me.

"I came here to see if Riku Mizuyo was still here." I spoke without thinking. 'She has to be causing this, yet how to I break her hold over me?' I thought as I tried my best to keep my mouth from revealing anything else.

"Interesting, yet didn't you know that poor Riku-kun was killed two years ago. Apparently he caused to much ruckus and executioners were sent to him." She responding in a sweet, innocent voice. Practically screaming that there is more to the story than that. "So, either your lying, or you have been out of touch for a few years now." She finished stepping closer to me.

"Out of touch" I continue to speak without the intent to. Though I do manage to take another step back from her, keeping my distance.

"Then you have horrible luck." She said with a smirk. 'Yes, that is very true.' I mentally agreed. Clearly see that this wasn't going to be anywhere near as simple to deal with, as if it was Riku.

"Though it would be very boring to just kill you right here." She stated while tapping a gloved hand to her lip. "It has been so long sense anything has happened. Which was the point. I picked this place so I could amass strength quietly, as who looks for a new apostle in a dead ones old home. But now that you are here we should play a game so not to waste such an entertaining opportunity." She starts to walk close to me again smiling.

An insane idea forms in my mind. I let her walk towards me, slowly but surely she makes it to me with a smirk. The what I assume apostle start to walk around me seeming to size me up.

"Hmm but I wonder if you would actually be entertaining to play with. You just look so weak." It states with a small frown. I watch her intently waiting for her to return in front of me. Once she finally gets to the point of face me again she reaches up and brings her hand to my face as if to inspect me.

It was in that moment I flashes to life, pushing prana into the hilt still hidden in my hand to reform the blade and thrust it to her heart with all my might! Yet the blade didn't even pierce her clothing. She had managed to catch my arm and held it in a vice grip with the hand that wasn't on my face.

"Haha, that was quite the attempt. But sorry little boy you're a decade too young to pull a fast one on me." She states giving me a few pats on the side of my face, yet never letting go of my arm. But I didn't give up yet. I push more prana into the black key to quickly extend the blade. Yet, she managed to pull my arm up, only gaining a nick on the top of her shoulder.

"Well, if anything you have spirit." She said chuckling at the end. "Just not the skill or experience to follow through." She stated letting go of my arm with a little push to force me back a few steps. As soon as she did it I quickly backed up to put more distance in between us.

"Ah, I suppose after that performance you can provide a little bit of entertainment for me." She said as the small wound I dealt faded away.

"I think it will be fun to watch you face my minions, see what kind of little plans you'll make for them. If you by some miracle manage to kill all of them, I will grant you the honor of dying to my hand. Also as a sign of good will, I'll tell you that one of my undead is over in the graveyard preparing to consume the old grave keeper." She points toward the east indicating where I should go. It took all of my will to not bolt to the graveyard in order to save that man so that I could hear the rest of what she has to say. "But be warned, if you try to leave this city, I'll be forced to kill you sooner than I would like." She jumped up to the roof and watched me.

She called out one last time to me, "I don't take to long though, I might get bored and kill you before you even have a chance to make it to my undead." She threatened. I didn't even wait to reply before I bolted out of the alley in the direction of the graveyard.

 **Author's notes:**

So I have finally gotten around to this chapter, and all I have to say about this is that I'm a very sporadic person for anything that I do. So never expect consistent updates from me. It didn't help that this chapter was a little meh for me to write. As I know what I want to do in this story, I'm struggling to think of how to get it there in a realistic way. Also, like always thanks for the encouragement from the reviews it really does help motivate me. Hopefully this wasn't too boring as it was a lot less character interaction compaired my first two chapters.


End file.
